Chapter Text
Why can’t you follow the simplest orders?
Every time you step outside, disaster follows.
Those who stay will look after Sif.
She’s different, Gobber. Not like you and I.
No more of this… This.
All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen!
Odin, it was rough, I almost gave up on you!
I can finally show my face in public again!
You’ve thrown your lot in with them, you’re not a Viking! You’re not my daughter.
My father's words rattle around inside of my head as I stand stark still on the top of the staircase leading down to the docks, watching my biological father load my adoptive father onto a boat. Toothless croons lowly, and I don't know how I can hear it exactly, but I can. I watch sadly as the ship sails off. I don’t notice that I’m not alone anymore until Anders places his hand on my shoulder and I jump. He gently places his hand back down by his side and I quickly swipe away the tears on my cheeks that I hadn’t payed any attention to.
“It’s a mess.” Anders says, coming to stand next to me. I don’t look at him. Our emotional bond as soulmates makes it so he knows all he needs to about how I’m feeling at the moment. “You must feel horrible,” He continues, and I look at him out of the corner of my eye.
“You’ve lost everything.” Oh wow, and I had thought that everything had changed, that I wouldn’t be the thing everyone poked fun at. I was wrong, it looks like. “Your father, your tribe, your bestfriend.” Anders continues.
“Thank you, very much, for summing that up. Very helpful.” I sigh, crossing my arms over my chest to fiddle with the necklace still around my neck. The red sea glass representing my status in the village as my father’s daughter, the same with my kransen that currently lays in a heap on the mead hall floor after my father shoved me to the floor.
I lift the necklace from my neck and look at the stone. “Why couldn’t I have killed that dragon when I found him in the woods? Would’ve been better, for everyone…” I say, fiddling with the necklace.
“Yup! The rest of us would have done it.” Anders says, looking at the necklace in my hands and then up to my hair, probably looking for my kransen. “So, why didn’t you?” Anders asks.
When I don’t answer, he asks again. “Why didn’t you?” I look up at him through my hair before looking away again.
“I… I don’t know. I couldn’t.” I say, turning away from him.
“That’s not an answer.” Anders says.
“Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?!” I snap, refusing to look at him. He hadn’t cared this much when he was threatening to tell my father and the village about Toothless, and he hadn’t cared this much when we were both in the air, safe on Toothless’s back and high above the clouds.
“Because I want to remember what you say. Right now.” He says, bending to get down on my level despite me not actively looking at him.
“Oh, for the love of - I… I was a coward! I was weak! I wouldn’t kill a dragon!”
He snaps his fingers at me. “You said ‘wouldn’t’ that time.”
I give him an angry look. “Oh, Thor. Whatever! I wouldn’t! Three-hundred years and I’m the first Viking who wouldn’t kill a dragon!” I snap at him, hand clenching around the necklace still inside of it. After a few seconds of silence, I turn away from him and step closer to the edge of the staircase.
“First to ride one, though.” Anders says and I slowly turn to look at him again. “So…”
“I wouldn’t kill him, because he looked just as frightened as I was. I looked at him, and I saw myself.” I tell him. He smiles softly at me.
“I bet he’s really frightened now. What are you going to do about it?” Anders asks.
“Eh, probably something stupid.” I groan. He nods.
“Good. But you’ve already done that.” He says. An idea clocks in my brain.
“Then something crazy.” I tell him, turning to run up the stairs, but before I do, I turn towards the ocean and - as hard as I can - throw the necklace into the sea. I’m not the Chief’s daughter anymore, he made sure of that. I watch it fall and splash into the ocean before running up the stairs and through the village.
I skid to a stop outside the kill ring, scraping my fingers against the rough floor before running into the ring. I stand in front of the cages, trying to decide which dragon would be the best to go battle a Queen dragon the size of a mountain and get Toothless back.
“If you’re planning on getting eaten, I’d definitely go with the Gronckle.” Fishlegs says, and I spin around to look at him. The others are there too, Anders must have gotten them.
Tuffnut pushes past his sister and makes his way into my personal space, bending down slightly to get on my level. “You were wise to seek help from the world’s deadliest weapon. It’s me!”
Snotlout pushes him out of the way with a hand to his face. “I, love this plan.” He says.
“I didn’t…”
Ruffnut shoulders him out of the way, getting in my face like her brother did. “You’re crazy. I like that,” She whispers, sultry. She licks my nose and then Anders steers her away by the horns on her helmet. I wipe the saliva off my nose.
“So, what is the plan?” Anders asks with his hands on his hips. I look at him surprised, before looking at everyone behind him and smile. I get them to line up and then choose to bring the Monsterous Nightmare out first, I need to apologise for the fight earlier. I can see everyone tense when I slowly lead the dragon out, but I don’t really pay attention to anything other than him. When he’s fully outside of the cage, I finally place my hand on his snout and he huffs hot hair at my hand, pressing against it. I smile at him and lead him a little further back, towards Snotlout.
The boy panics, obviously, but I nudge him and he hesitantly gives me his hand. I slowly remove my hand from the Monsterous Nightmare’s snout and place Snotlout’s hand to hover in front of him. The dragon takes one look at Snotlout and presses his snout against his hand. Snotlout exhales in relief and smiles at the dragon. The Monsterous Nightmare churrs quietly and Snotlout laughs.
I notice all the other dragons slowly making their way out of their cages and move towards the little storage chest to the side.
“Where are you going?!” Snotlout panics. I pull rope out of the chest and show it to the others.
“You’ll need something to help you hold on.” I tell them, and they all turn to look at the dragons.
They’re not going to make the first move, and neither are the dragons, so I do the same process that I did with Snotlout. I start with the Hideous Zippleback, and I pair him with the twins, who practically vibrate excitedly. Then the Gronckle, who doesn’t need much leading towards Fishlegs. He whimpers but allows her to butt her head against him. Then the Deadly Nadder goes to Anders. He allows her to nibble at his fingers and smiles as she chirps at him.
I make reigns with the rope and help everyone to sit on their dragons. I have to physically sit on the Monsterous Nightmare to show Snotlout that he wouldn’t eat him and that he was really just a big sweetheart. The Monsterous Nightmare purrs at me as I slide off of his neck and I rub his horn gently. I walk over to the Deadly Nadder and Anders offers me a hand to help me up. The Nadder chirps at me and smile. Anders places me in front of him on the Nadder and settles down behind me with his hands on my hips, like the first flight on Toothless. I make a mental note to make sure the Kill Ring dragons get names if I don’t die to this massive Queen dragon.
We all take off and the other teens struggle with their dragons at first, but soon level out. It takes only a few minutes to get to the nest, but when we do, the Queen is already out and agitated.
“Look at us! We’re on dragons! We’re all on dragons!” Tuffnut shouts, waving his hands in the air before the Zippleback shakes his heads and he has to hold on to make sure he doesn’t fall off.
I could probably break the Queen down if I wasn’t so focused on looking for Toothless in amongst the fire and wrecked ships. So I ask Fishlegs to.
“Ok! Heavily armoured skull and tail made for bashing and crushing! Steer clear of both! Small eyes, large nostrils, relies on hearing and smell!”
Ok, I can work with that. “Ok! Lout, Legs, hang in its blind spot, make some noise, keep it confused! Ruff, Tuff, find out if it has a shot limit, make it mad!”
They both smile excitedly. “That’s my specialty!” Ruffnut says, winking at me and Anders. Tuffnut gets mad and says something I can’t hear before turning upside down on his Zippleback head. I shake my head and steer the Nadder over the ships and fire, trying to find Toothless. Anders keeps a tight grip on my hips and also keeps a look out.
I hear him cry out and snap my head to where it came from and spot him. “There!” The Nadder follows my finger and slows down just above the ship. I manoeuvre around Anders and he scoots forward into my previous spot as I jump down onto the ship and then he’s off, flying off to help our other soulmates. Toothless churrs happily at me and I smile, rubbing the top of his head.
I grab a hold of the muzzle around his head and pull as hard as I can until it slips off and I nearly fall backwards until Toothless bites the front of my leather straps to keep me upright. “Thanks, Bud.” I kiss him on the head before trying to break off his chains with a scrap bit of metal. My hands burn with the friction but I don’t care and just keep pulling his bindings. Toothless churrs worriedly at me but I ignore him.
“Come on, please!” I whisper desperately, my weak arms failing me as I try to free Toothless. Tears slip down my face. I’m too weak to get him out. The Queen’s tail swipes overhead and a burning bit of wood from the other ship lands right next to me. I yelp and jump out of the way. Then the Queen steps on the side of the boat, sending Toothless straight into the sea and me onto the burning shoreline. The fire burns my hands but I ignore it and dive straight into the sea, swimming down to get Toothless.
I ignore the blisters on my hands and pull hard at Toothless’s neck brace by the chain, my hands slipping due to the water. I groan and just start pulling at the wood bit. Toothless growls. I breathe in water as I start getting desperate, and slowly lose consciousness until I’m being dragged out of the water. I cough up all the water I breathed in as my back hits the shoreline harshly, catching sight of someone going back down for Toothless.
Toothless bursts out of the water with the Chief in his claws and drops him on the shore before landing over me. I smile as he licks me and checks me for injuries, nosing at my chest. He lets me stand up and I climb into the saddle, fitting my feet into the stirrups.
While I’m clipping myself in, the Chief grabs my arm. “Sif.” I turn to look at him, our matching green eyes meeting. “I’m sorry… for everything.” He says.
I nod at him. “Me, too.”
“You don’t have to go up there.” The Chief says.
“We’re Vikings, it’s an occupational hazard.” I tell him. He tightens his grip on my hands, looking at my bare neck and hair.
“I’m proud to call you my daughter.” He says.
You’ve thrown your lot in with them! You’re not a Viking. You’re not my daughter.
I nod at him. “Thanks, Dad.” I whisper, and then Toothless is taking off. He flies around for a bit to let me analyse what I need to do to stop this entire thing, that is, until I notice the Queen opening her maw and sucking in, catching Anders and his Nadder. They struggle against the suction, but it isn’t enough. Toothless nose dives and fired plasma straight into the Queen’s eyes and she stops sucking in to screech. Anders is knocked from the Nadder and he yells as he falls and the Nadder flies away in fright.
Toothless swoops down and picks something out of the air, which I hope is Anders. I look down, “Did you get him?” Anders is smiling up at me and Toothless from where he’s hanging by his foot from Toothless’s claws. Toothless spins him around so he’s hanging by his arms instead so we can put him down. Once Anders is safely on the ground with the others, Toothless takes us higher. On the way past, I see that the Queen has wings.
“That thing has wings! Ok, let’s see if we can get her to use them.” Toothless spins into a nose dive, heading straight for the Queen. He sends a plasma blast straight into the back of the Queen, knocking her over and causing her to roar in pain. We fly up afterwards, and I turn to see if it worked. It did, her wings are spread and she’s getting ready to take off. I smile. “Well, she can fly!” I say and Toothless warbles.
We lead the Queen on a wild yak chase for a few minutes until I see a cloud bank we can use to our advantage. “Ok, Toothless, time to disappear.” He warbles at me and shoots up for the clouds. I smell the fire before I turn around and see it, but Toothless dodges the Queen’s blast easily, barrel rolling to the side. When we properly get into the cloud bank, we veer off to the side and the Queen hovers in mid air, looking around for us.
While she looks for us, Toothless speeds up and comes behind her to shoot another plasma blast at her wings. She roars in anger and pain as we zoom past her. I hold my breathe as we pass her and keep her spinning in circles with a few random plasma blasts added into the mix, scared to inhale any smoke from the fire underneath the clouds.
The Queen quickly gets sick of us spinning her in circles, so she sways her head and spews fire everywhere. I duck before it can singe my hair off of my scalp. I hear fabric burning and panic, thinking that I’m on fire anyway - which my shirt is, wonderful - but it’s Toothless’s prosthetic tail. “Oook, time’s up! Let’s see if this works.” Toothless warbles at me, seeing that my shirt is almost burnt off entirely and the bindings on my chest to give it some support are coming loose, but I shake my head at him. I’m more worried about his tail than my modesty.
Toothless nose dives once again and blasts at the Queen’s wings again, getting in her face and narrowly missing her chomps. Once we have her attention, we nose dive again and she follows us down. “Stay with me Toothless, we’re good, just a little longer.” I tell him as the Queen roars angrily behind us.
“Hold, Toothless,” I say, hearing the suction of the Queen opening her maw to breathe fire. “Now!” Toothless spins and waits a few seconds before shooting a plasma blast straight into the Queen’s gullet. She snaps her maw shut and opens her wings to try and break her fall, but they just rip and she plummets, skull first, into the island. Toothless manoeuvres us out of the way and along the Queen’s back.
I turn to look at Toothless’s tailfin to see if it’ll hold on, just to see the last bit of metal snap off. My heart drops and I turn around to try and figure out how to get out of this situation, until the world decides for me, thanks Odin. The Queen’s boulder of a tail crashes down on me, knocking me straight off of Toothless’s back. I lose consciousness almost immediately, which means I only feel a second of the blistering heat against my bare back.
~
When I wake up, I’m in my house, and Toothless is here. I panic, because it’s my house and Toothless is in my house. “What are you doing here? Does my dad know you’re here?” I ask as Toothless noses against my chest. He starts getting excited, jumping around the room before climbing up onto the rafters. “Oh, ok, ok.” I mumble, moving to get up.
My left leg burns in pain and I yelp, throwing the blanket off my legs. Toothless croons and jumps down from the rafters. My left leg is not there. In its place is a bit of wood and metal. A peg leg, like Gobber’s except it’s not just a snapped bit of a broom. I breathe heavily as I swing my legs down off the bed and place them on the floor. Toothless noses at my knee and I happily use his head as a crutch as I pull myself to stand.
Toothless helps me out of the house, and the first thing I see is a Monsterous Nightmare and I immediately slam the door closed. When the telltale sign of fire through the door doesn’t come, I open it again. Snotlout is riding said Monsterous Nightmare. What? He urges people to come on, and then people flying dragons follow him. I step out. “This is it. I died, didn’t I? I’m in Valhalla.” I say to myself. But I get an answer.
“No, but you gave it your best shot,” My dad says, holding two bits of leather in his hands. He presents them to me. One is my kransen, which if I remember correctly was on the mead hall floor, and the other is my necklace, which I had thrown into the sea after my pep-talk with Anders. “But I got rid of that,” I say, taking both things. “Again, you gave it your best shot. The tide brought it in.” I put both of them on, and my dad smiles at me.
“Turns out, all we needed was a little more of this.” My dad says, gesturing to me. I smile at him, “You just gestured to all of me?” He nods, also smiling.
“Well, most of ya. That bit’s my handiwork, with a little Sif flair thrown in. What do you think?” I lean on my right foot and pretend to examine the prosthetic. “I might make a few tweaks,” I joke, and for once, everyone laughs.
I get a punch in the shoulder for my troubles, apparently. I yelp and spin around to come face to face with Anders. “That’s for scaring me,” He tells me and I huff.
“W-W-What? Is it always going to be this way with you or what? ‘Cause…” He cuts me off by grabbing me by the waist and pulling me against his chest to kiss me hard on the lips.
The adults all coo at us, but when he lets go of me I stumble a bit on my prosthetic.
“…I could get used to it,” I whisper.
He tilts his head with a smile. “Yeah?” I nod slowly. Anders tilts his to signal for me to turn around and I do, just to get handed a new tail prosthetic and saddle.
“Welcome home.” Gobber says.
Toothless decides he hasn’t had enough of my attention today, so he climbs over everyone standing in his way and coos at me, saying my name in dragonspeak. Hatchling-Girl, I’m pretty sure it means that. I’m still learning to speak the dragons’ language, but I know some noises. I coo back at him.
He lets me put the saddle and new tail prosthetic on him and warbles excitedly when my prosthetic fits in perfectly with his.
We get to fly together again, and this time all my soulmates join us, and we get to race. Me and Toothless win, of course.
Who knew befriending a dragon and committing treason would end up making my life better than it was before?